Biology Genetics

An eye-opening investigation into ancestry and origins in the Middle East that synthesizes thousands of years of genetic history in the region to question what it means to be indigenous to any land “Ancestors transcends geography to launch an eye-opening inquiry into the relationship of...

Greg Bear’s Nebula Award–winning novel, Darwin’s Radio, painted a chilling portrait of humankind on the threshold of a radical leap in evolution. Now Bear continues his provocative tale of the human race confronted by an uncertain future, where “survival of the fittest” takes on...

Nature is rife with cheating. Possums play possum, feigning death to cheat predators. Crows cry wolf to scare off rivals. Amphibians and reptiles are inveterate impostors. Even genes and cells cheat. The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars explores the evolution of cheating in the natural world, revealing how dishonesty has given rise to wondrous diversity.

Are the ways we look at menopause all wrong? Historian Susan Mattern says yes, and The Slow Moon Climbs reveals just how wrong we have been. Taking listeners from the rainforests of Paraguay to the streets of Tokyo, Mattern draws on historical, scientific, and cultural research to reveal how our perceptions of menopause developed from prehistory to today. For most of human history, people had no word for menopause and did not view it as a medical condition. Rather, in traditional foraging and agrarian societies, it was a transition to another important life stage.

What if the Internet goes dark? We think of the Internet as wireless, weightless, ever-present—but its true foundation lies in the ocean’s depths, where nearly 900,000 miles of fiber-optic cables quietly pulse with all the world’s information. In The Web Beneath the Waves, the acclaimed...

Dr. Dino Martins, an awarding-winning entomologist of Kenya's Turkana Basin, where life was born, unspools the hidden, squirming world of parasites—some of the most misunderstood, and important, creatures with whom we share the Earth (and our bodies!). “May this tusk root out the lice of the...

In Monarchs and Milkweed, Anurag Agrawal presents a vivid investigation into how the monarch butterfly has evolved closely alongside the milkweed - a toxic plant named for the sticky white substance emitted when its leaves are damaged - and how this inextricable and intimate relationship has been like an arms race over the millennia, a battle of exploitation and defense between two fascinating species.

How a mysterious, super-powerful—yet long-neglected—microbe rules our world and can rescue our health in the age of antibiotic resistance. At every moment, within our bodies and all around us, trillions of microscopic combatants are waging a war that shapes our health and life on Earth...

DNA serves as the basic instruction manual for life. In this installment, we look at the way in which DNA is structured, replicated, and how it is packaged into such a small area. This will provide the basic understanding of how genes are structured in an easy to understand way.

For many of us, the great scientific discoveries of the modern age—the Big Bang, evolution, quantum physics, relativity—point to an existence that is bleak, devoid of meaning, pointless. But in The Sacred Depths of Nature, eminent biologist Ursula Goodenough shows us that the scientific world view need not be a source of despair. Indeed, it can be a wellspring of solace and hope. This volume reconciles the modern scientific understanding of reality with our timeless spiritual yearnings for reverence and continuity.

Plongez dans les secrets des cycles de vie extraordinaires d’espèces animales et végétales peuplant notre planète. Des requins aux méduses en passant par les spectaculaires cellules des séquoias, les superpouvoirs de la nature en matière de longévité sont une inspiration pour améliorer notre propre santé et notre qualité de vie.

Jonathan Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Beak of the Finch, brings his brilliant reporting skills to the story of Seymour Benzer, the Brooklyn-born maverick scientist whose study of genetics and experiments with fruit fly genes has helped revolutionize or knowledge of the connections between DNA and behavior both animal and human.

Embark on an inspiring journey through the life and groundbreaking work of Barbara McClintock, a pioneering geneticist whose discoveries revolutionized our understanding of genetics. This captivating book, tailored for young listeners aged 8-14, brings science to life with engaging stories, hands-on activities, and vivid illustrations.

We know much about our history from bones and DNA, but these studies do not tell us about the characteristics that are not preserved in the fossil record―the fleshy parts and behaviors. Looking Down the Tree applies evolutionary principles to understand the history of our species and the pressures of natural selection which led to our unique appearance and behaviors. Cruzan draws upon evidence from fossils, genomics, phylogenetics, coalescence theory.

Evolution is one of the most important processes in life. It not only explains the detailed history of life on earth, but its scope also extends into many aspects of our own contemporary behavior - who we are and how we got to be here, our psychology, our cultures - and greatly impacts modern advancements in medicine and conservation biology. Perhaps its most important claim for science is its ability to provide an overarching framework that integrates the many life sciences into a single unified whole. Yet, evolution has been, and continues to be, regarded with suspicion by many.

Life on earth is facing unprecedented challenges from global warming, war, and mass extinctions. The plight of seeds is a less visible but no less fundamental threat to our survival. Seeds are at the heart of the planet's life-support systems. Their power to regenerate and adapt are essential to...

A daring and intimate exploration of how genetics complicates our ideas about blame, punishment, and moral responsibility, from acclaimed psychologist and author of The Genetic Lottery Kathryn Paige Harden. As one of the world’s leading scientists examining how our DNA shapes differences in...

Since the conclusion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, scientists have been racing toward a grand goal: offering individuals a decoding of their complete genetic makeup for just $1,000. As Kevin Davies reveals in this exquisitely reported account, the $1,000 genome will be a reality by 2011 and it will usher in a whole new era of personalized, genomic medicine.

Was ist Leben? Und was bedeutet die Antwort auf diese Frage für die Herausforderungen, denen sich die Menschheit heute gegenübersieht - Klimawandel, Pandemien und Artensterben? Paul Nurse erhielt den Nobelpreis dafür, gezeigt zu haben, wie lebende Zellen funktionieren. In seinem so klar wie elegant verfassten Buch synthetisiert er auf wenigen Seiten sämtliches Wissen darüber, was es heißt, am Leben zu sein. Schritt für Schritt erläutert Nurse die fünf revolutionären Ideen, die der Biologie zugrunde liegen - die Zelle, das Gen, Evolution durch natürliche Selektion, das Leben als Chemie und das Leben als Information.

It is widely understood that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution completely revolutionized the study of biology. Yet, according to David Sloan Wilson, the Darwinian revolution won’t be truly complete until it is applied more broadly—to everything associated with the words “human,”...